The regions that consented the most new dwellings
in April were:• Auckland – 697 (including 241
apartments)• Canterbury – 554 (including 40
apartments)• Waikato – 261 (including 69
apartments).• A total of $1.1 billion of building
work was consented in April, with $739 million of
residential work and $401 million of non-residential
work.

Data for building consents is obtained from all
territorial authorities in New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key says it is “not the government’s preferred option” to make a fresh capital injection into the troubled state-owned coal miner, Solid Energy, but dodged journalists’ questions at his weekly press conference on whether that might prove necessary... More>>

NZCU Baywide says that once it was found to have committed a breach of a former staff member’s privacy, it had attempted to resolve the matter... the censure and remedies for its actions taken almost three years ago are “severe” but accepted, and will hopefully draw a line under the matter. More>>

PayPal has ceased processing payments for Mega, the file storage and encryption firm looking to join the New Zealand stock market via a reverse listing of TRS Investments, amid claims it is not a legitimate cloud storage service. More>>

The New Zealand government's operating deficit was smaller than expected in the first six months of the financial year, as the consumption and corporate tax take rose ahead of forecast in December, having lagged estimates in previous months. More>>